The next Aboriginal Art Reading Group meeting will be 19 September 4-5pm in room 106, John Medley Building, University of Melbourne.

In honour of the passing of Emeritus Professor Bernard William Smith we will be reading his 2006 paper, “Creators and Catalysts: The Modernisation of Australian Indigenous Art,” as well as Connal Parsley’s “Christian Thompson and the Art of Indigeneity,” in the first issue of Discipline.

I will email members of the reading groups’ electronic mailing list copies of both essays. Alternatively, the full text of Smith’s essay can be located in on the University of Melbourne’s Discovery Search database; and Discipline is for sale at these stockists.

Please see below for a tribute to Bernard William Smith by Dr. Sheridan Palmer.

With the death of the art historian Bernard Smith aged ninety-four a chapter closes in Australian intellectual life. A rigorous historian of Australia’s cultural development and an astute critic of art and society, he was recognised as the father of Australian art history, Continue reading →

The word “No” does not exist in the majority of the over 200 Australian Aboriginal languages, and where it does exist, this powerful word is reserved for the elders and is used with great care and ceremony. As these languages reach the brink of extinction, indigenous Australian artists are using contemporary art to assert their identity and culture and say no to racism, land theft and colonialism in an urban world. With this, MoCADA announces the opening of the highly anticipated international group exhibition entitled, Saying No: Reconciling Spirituality and Resistance in Indigenous Australian Art.

The exhibition is guest curated by Bindi Cole, and will be on view from August 11 through November 6, Continue reading →